Rising Stars: Meet Desiree Fedalen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Desiree Fedalen.

Hi Desiree, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Desiree, and I wear many hats… literally. I am an 8th grade math and science teacher, have three children under 10, married 16 years to my husband, and jewelry designer out of Downtown, LA. I am a fitness lover, including distance trail running, weight training, tennis, and Pilates. My family has a history in the jewelry business, from Europe to New York, to Los Angeles. Jewelry has always been a part of my family heritage. My grandmother was a sculptor, performer, painter and jewelry designer. She did many shows, and hosted jewelry making classes and had a shop out of her little home in Mar Vista. My grandfather was known for having one of the most incredible and ornate bolo tie collections from all over the world; and specifically, a special artist who would fly to him from Denver, CO. From my grandparents, I was given some incredible estate pieces that I started redesigning in my young 20s. I would always receive compliments for my jewelry’s uniqueness and beauty, and everyone wanted to know where they could get my pieces. I love to incorporate semi-precious stones with finer gems and mix gold tones. I have been teaching for 11 years, but my actual business blossomed in COVID when schools were shut down. I was so distressed from the experience; but my dreams grew more and more, and I started taking steps with my business little by slowly. I had the support and blessing of my wholesaler, who originally had connections to my husband’s family and where I did all my jewelry starting with my engagement ring. All my pieces are designed and crafted by hand in downtown LA with local artists. My network of metalsmiths and gem dealers continues to grow more and more, as I keep developing professional relationships with the wonderful artists of downtown. It has been a tremendous amount of work, however, seeing the happiness that jewelry and custom pieces brings to people, I absolutely have zero regrets. My kids and students think it’s super cool too 🙂

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oy, life is constantly filled with many challenges for all humans. One of the main tenements of being human, is to feel intense emotions and overcome obstacles. Struggles that I personally had to overcome would be my soft, people pleasing tendencies. I have come to learn that this side of my personality has been a blessing and a curse for me building a jewelry business. The positive side is that I give incredible detail and care to all of my clients and their pieces. I am very quick with responses to questions, giving quotes for projects, sourcing materials, working with many different artists/ venders for a common goal, team management, etc. However, the negative side is that I have had some financial issues with collecting bills. The first two years, since I was growing; I did payment plans and was too soft on timelines for payment, and marking down prices; however, after some bad financial situations, I have come to learn that I need to have very clear boundaries, timelines and agreements, (layaway vs. payments) so there are no bad feelings related to financial matters. Money is a very tough matter for most, things get complicated, so having very clear communication and agreements before a project is completed, makes for emotional and financial success all around on both ends of a client-jeweler relationship.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As mentioned before, I come from a family of artists and jewelers, the love of arts is in my blood. In particular, my greatest inspiration was my grandmother who was a jeweler, sculptor, and painter. She loved exotic jewelry from all around the world, but Africa in particular. From my grandparents, I have redesigned family heirlooms to make more age appropriate for myself and I consider redesigning family heirlooms my specialty. I have such a love and passion for redesigning family pieces, I love hearing the stories behind each piece, and envision something unique for each person I’m working with. I am very sensitive, and akin to what my clients are envisioning, even if they do not have the words or images in their mind. I help my clients work through designs one step at a time for complete customer satisfaction.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
My business is dependent upon the diamond district downtown. Los Angeles has been a beacon of culture and diversity for many decades and used to be so fun and exciting. Unfortunately, in the last several years; I have firsthand seen a major decline in our economy, and homelessness crisis. My costs for work just keep going up and up, making it hard to compete financially with foreign lower quality, mass produced work. I’m pretty down on the current political climate, I’m seeing a ton of graffiti and damage to city and private property, hate speech, and the drug crisis is truly an emergency. As a teacher, I see children walking to school with dangerous people and circumstances too close to them, and it’s very upsetting. I have three young children myself, and I really think back to how free my mom was in Venice Beach in the 70s. She would go to Tijuana with a 57 chevy, full of young wild people, no phones, no passport, no money, and make it home safe by 4am. Can you imagine that now?! We are taxed incredibly high (which I have become even more aware of with starting a small business in Los Angeles), and I question everyday where our money is going under these horrible policies that are clearly not working for the betterment of our citizens. There are 12 step programs that help millions of people every day turn their lives around from complete chaos and suffering to happiness and success. As a city, and country; we should all know that nothing changes, if nothing changes; and when something is not working, try something new. I pray every day for our world to restore itself to sanity; and let all the children of the world, no matter what their background or location; to enjoy the blessings of hard work, prosperity and health.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: diamondsbydesiree